Now What?
by yugifrozenfan
Summary: RubySlippers. Set after the episode in question, Ruby & Dorothy ponder where to take their relationship now after the kiss happened. Mulan and Snow make brief appearances & Widow Lucas is involved in the final bridge.


AN: I'm back again with another story, this time back to the OUAT section (ie: I've written two Frozen fanfics using OUAT's timeframe and canon) however, this won't be in the Frozen OUAT canon, this would be in the main canon, to be precise, set after "Ruby Slippers" wherein the namesake couple decides what to do after Ruby wakes up Dorothy with True Love's Kiss. OUAT itself is the property of ABC Studios.

To say the kiss was magical would have been the understatement of the century. They didn't notice they had spectators watching them kiss, nor did they care. What mattered was that they had each other, no, they NEEDED each other. Besides if they ran Ruby out of town on a rail if the Wolf took over, she'd have Dorothy, right? Not exactly. Now, they faced a new dilemma: Now that Dorothy was awake, now what? They knew Snow had to return back to Storybrooke to tend to Baby Neal, Mulan? No idea and as for Ruby and Dorothy? No freaking clue! It turns out Ruby was asking herself the exact same question the second she pulled away from Dorothy's lips for air. "So, now what?" she inquired to her friends. She now had two choices: Either stay in Oz with Dorothy or go back to Storybrooke and take Dorothy with her.

"I think, Ruby, you should be asking yourself that", Snow said in her typical manner. "As for me, well, there's a certain baby I need to be tending to back home", she stated before putting on the silver slippers and tapping herself back to Storybrooke, leaving the slippers behind for the next user or users. Ruby molled over Snow's words and it turned out, she was right on the money. Sure, Oz was safe now that Zelena had 'unofficially' moved to Storybrooke but what if there was another witch just waiting in the wings? Would it be safe then?

"What are you thinking, Wolfie?" Dorothy asked, snuggling Ruby.

"I was thinking if it would be safe for me to take you and Toto out of Oz and back to Storybrooke", Ruby admitted. Dorothy's face showed an mixture of both good and bad scenarios: The good side would be she would be with her true love but the bad side was the same thing Ruby was thinking of: What if Oz got a new threat who wouldn't be as merciful? Sure Zelena was bad but she never really outright harmed the residents. Yes she would make threats but they were more intimidation threats to keep the Munchkins in line.

"The scenario you proposed has two sides to every coin: Scenario 1: Let's say I do go with you back to wherever it was you said you came from and Oz gets clean of danger, I'm with you. Happy ever afters all around. However, Scenario 2: a new threat arises here, one who may have been in hiding ever since I returned", Dorothy stated. Ruby gluped, she never considered that possibility.

"Then I'll stay", she said without hestiation.

"You can't keep me a secret forever, Wolfie. Speaking of which, what happened while I was knocked out?" Dorothy inquired.

"Sit down. This'll take a while", Ruby stated. She explained everything that happened while in the Underworld, what Hades did to try and thwart their attempts at getting a true love's kiss from Dorothy's Aunt Em, all because she tried to repress her feelings. Dorothy listened to every detail and was saddened because Ruby's revelation Aunt Em was in the Underworld was that she died from that illness she came down from when she returned to Oz. Even the world's finest doctors couldn't determine exactly what had brought it on almost as if after Dorothy left to live in Oz permanately, it was of a broken heart. However, it would be nice if Dorothy could meet Granny first if they did decide to stay in Oz. It was eventually decided the two would travel to Storybrooke for some 'breathing time' to figure out where to go next. They asked Mulan if she could accompany them but she refused. "Are you sure?" Ruby had asked.

"I'm sure. I have no further need to accompany you any farther", she said.

"But", Ruby started to say but Mulan held up a hand to silence her.

"I have accompanied you as far as you can go in your quest for self discovery. You wanted to find your pack, you found love instead. Unlike me, you chose love over your pack and listened to what your heart was telling you to do", Mulan continued.

"What happened?" Now Ruby was curious to know about Mulan's own history.

"This'll take awhile", Mulan stated. She then explained that she had accompanied a friend of hers to rescue her true love and over the course of the journey, she fell in love with said friend but unlike Ruby, she put her duty before her heart. Why? Because she was to be married to her other best friend so she'd been drifting throughout the Enchanted Forest, trying to get over her.

"You sure you'll be okay?" Dorothy asked.

"I can take care of myself", Mulan answered. Having a feeling they would be in Storybrooke a LOT longer than antipicated, Dorothy suddenly got an idea. She looked at Mulan.

"Kneel", she commanded. Mulan did as she was told. Dorothy placed her hands on Mulan's armored shoulders. "I, Dorothy, charge you, Mulan, to be protector of Oz and the Munchkins. Do you accept this position?" Mulan vigoriously nodded. "It is settled", she said merely as she removed her hands from Mulan's shoulders.

Ruby placed her feet into the slippers and Dorothy grabbed her hand as to ensure that she would be taken when the slippers activated their magic. "There's no place like Storybrooke", she said as she clicked her heels three times for the slippers to spirit them away back to Storybrooke. To say Dorothy was taken aback by the moderness of the town was an understatement. Having grown up on a farm, it wasn't actually modern. Sure, there WERE modern elements but nothing like this.

"It was all created with magic", Ruby explained.

"All this was done with magic?" Dorothy asked. Ruby merely nodded and it was a couple minutes of walking before she asked, "Where are we going?" Ruby kept quiet as they continued walking. Finally, they reached their destination, Granny's Diner. Dorothy glupped as Ruby knocked on the door.

"We're not open ye-", Granny said as she opened the door but stopped when she saw Ruby standing there. She pulled her into a hug. "You almost gave poor old Granny a heart attack when you disappeared with little to no explaination! Not even a note! Where were you?" Granny asked, although she wasn't angry, just concerned to say the least. Ruby explained how she went back to the Enchanted Forest to try and find her pack but somehow ended up in DunBroch where she was cursed into Wolf form, ended up in Oz where she met Dorothy and then in the Underworld, making sure to emphasize she wasn't dead or anything. Granny listened with intense interest before finally asking who the mystery Dorothy was. Ruby motioned for Dorothy to join her front and center.

"Granny, this is Dorothy Gale, my", she paused for a second, unsure whether or not to introduce Dorothy as either her girlfriend, her lover or a just REALLY close friend whom she's had a crush on for a long time. As a matter of fact, she didn't really know where her relationship with Dorothy actually stood by this point but she figured she should just tell Granny the truth. "My girlfriend", Ruby stated but her face fell as Granny took a second to process this information: Her granddaughter disappeared for a long time and then suddenly comes back to Storybrooke with a lover on her arm. Ruby and Dorothy both bit their lips, unsure of what Granny would think so it was a relief to the two that Granny's face broke into a huge grin.

"Well, you sure know how to pick 'em, Ruby! She's gorgeous!" She said.

"So, you're not ashamed?"

"Ashamed? Why should I be ashamed? Dorothy, welcome to the family", Granny said. Then she became serious. She gave Ruby a look that told her she should be in her room while she and Dorothy had a private chat. Knowing where this was going, as Granny had done this before with Peter, Ruby took off for the living quarters of the diner while Granny grabbed a booth and motioned for Dorothy to join her. Noting that she was in no position to counter, Dorothy set Toto down and sat down. "So, Dorothy, tell me about yourself. What was your life like before you met my Ruby?" she asked.

"Well, there's not really much to tell, actually, before my Oz adventures. If you don't believe me when I say Oz exists, I won't be surprised. My family, with the exception of Auntie Em, tried to have me committed and cleanse my head of these delusions of Oz", Dorothy explained. She then segued into the main crux of the adventure that ended with her in Ruby's arms. Granny listened with interest and assured Dorothy that she believed her when she said Oz existed.

"Well, you've seem to be the perfect fit for Ruby. Congratulations, you have my blessing. But, if you hurt my Ruby in any way, shape or form", Granny said while indictating her crossbow. Dorothy chuckled. "Something funny?" Granny inquired. Dorothy showed the woman her own crossbow. "What a coindence", Granny noted & the two had a laugh over it.

Meanwhile, Ruby was pacing in her room to the point where she was sure she would burn a hole in the floor. She knew that Granny always insisted on vetting all of her prospective love interests, even before the curse began. While it DID look like Dorothy won her over, what she was telling Granny downstairs could have negative effects in her decision to bless the couple. She remembered one guy nearly botched Granny's questioning to the point where Granny shot him in the leg for two reasons: 1. to express disapproval & 2\. to ensure he couldn't come back to their village. Finally, she heard footsteps coming up to the living area and in a couple seconds, the door flew open and she found herself in Dorothy's iron grip.

"How did you do?" Ruby asked.

"I passed. One question. Does your grandmother always do that to your prospective love interests?"

"Yep. She actually shot one in the leg because she didn't like how he came off", Ruby said with a snicker.

"Really?"

"Really, I saw him limping." The two laughed before joining their mouths in another kiss of passion. Ruby found her happy ending, even if it was a little bit different than what she had envisioned.

 **AN: That's it! That's it! To clear up some things: Granny's reactions in the diner scenes are actually more realistic reactions to the fact that A. Ruby essentially disappeared from Storybrooke without leaving some kind of a note for Granny & B. Returns to Storybrooke with a lover on her arm. Would be hard to swallow naturally at first but of course, Granny came around. R&R!**


End file.
